Fake Google apps removed from Window Phone Store by Microsoft

While the only Google app available in the Windows Phone Store should be the company's search app, this week others such as Google Voice, Maps, and Hangouts appeared in the marketplace before being discovered as fakes.

As first reported by WinBeta, the phony apps' developers were “Google, Inc” while the developers of the valid search app are “Google Inc”. Fraudsters charged users $1.99 each for the phony apps, before they were ultimately brought down by Microsoft.

According to a statement from a Microsoft spokesperson to The Next Web, rather than proactively monitoring its app store, the company stated that it educates “every developer from the very start,” reminding them that Microsoft “does not permit infringement of intellectual property.”

Compared to Apple and Google, the Microsoft's Windows Phone has a very small marketshare.